Partnerships and Change

Stacey Harker
Royal Roads University
EDLM 540
Lisa Read
February 3, 2013

Reflections on School-Community Partnerships and Change
In a school, there are many kinds of communities to consider. On a basic level, there is the classroom community, the school community, the teacher community, and the student community. But these communities have almost endless permutations: the extra curricular activities communities, the student council community, the Parent Advisory Community, the Professional Development community, the science community, the humanities community, the lunch in the cafeteria community, the lunch on the lawn community, the no lunch at all community. The list goes on, and it does not fit neatly into a graphic organizer.
School communities extend beyond the students, parents/guardians, and teachers because no community exists in isolation. A school is part of the village/town/city/metropolis within which it is situated. Schools are connected to the businesses they patronize and the social services they access. But the fluid connectivity of communities does not stop at formal interactions.
The wellness of a school affects the wellness of its community. If students display a weak aptitude for social responsibility, their interactions with people on the street will be negative and this will affect the tenor of the social environment and vice versa. At my school site, there is a community of students and drop-outs who spend a lot of time hanging around in a public area adjacent to the school. They are loud, obnoxious, and often under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Recently, they set fire to the outside of the library. These young people are running wild, seemingly without recourse. Most of this activity occurs outside of regular school hours, out of easy sight of the police, and obviously without due care from their guardians.
This community of teenagers and young adults has found a space to express itself by installing itself between communities instead of within them. Their anti-social behavior adversely affects the greater community. It would be easy to say that they should be locked up or otherwise penalized, but I’m not convinced that doing so would effectively address the problems associated with dis-enfranchised youth living in poverty, especially when we consider that they have created a community that brings them obvious joy and a strong sense of belonging. Is it possible to change the behavior without causing harm? Not likely. There is a reason humans have a natural aversion to change despite an innate sense of curiosity. In the case of the local hoodlums, I suggest following Margaret Wheatley’s “Creating Healthy Community Change” (2007), as interpreted by Robert Siegfried (1999):

• People support what they create
Are we engaging all those who have a stake in this issue?
• People act responsibly when they care
Are we working on an issue that people truly care about?
How do we know they care?
• Through conversation we discover shared meaning
How often do we use conversation rather than a more technical problem solving process? Where do our conversations occur?
• To change the conversation, change who is in it
Are we stuck in this conversation?
Do our conversations go ’round and ’round and lead nowhere?
What new people could we invite into the conversation?
• Expect leadership to come from anywhere
When have you been surprised about who stepped forward as an informal leader?”
• Focus on what’s working and it releases energy
When have we been most energised for our work? Why did we have so much energy? What is possible here, and who cares?”
• The wisdom resides within us
Do we look inside our community expecting to find the answers there?
Or do we look outside for best practice?”
• Everything is a failure in the middle
How do we react to times of failure when we see our progress suddenly disappear?
• People can handle anything as long as we are together
Are we paying attention to our relationships?
Are we supporting each other?
How often do we gossip, judge or scapegoat?”
• Generosity, forgiveness and love are the most important
If someone would observe our community, would they see generosity, forgiveness and love in us? 
When all is said and done, can we say this: “We were together. I forget the rest.” ?

If charged with leading change, then it is best to make it meaningful. Meaningful change requires the investment of the people who are making the change. Including the local hoodlums’ values, skills, needs, and interests in finding a way for them to contribute in a positive way is a deeply democratic act. Change can be made more efficiently through dictatorial acts, but if the people don’t want the change, the acts of change will be empty. Worse than a marriage of convenience, it is a forced union.
The example of the local hoodlums does not have an easy answer, but to lesser degrees, neither do any other acts of change. The “win-win situation” is a laudable intention, but there will always be dissenting voices. Effective leadership guides people through useful and relevant change that outweighs the drawbacks. School-community partnerships are an effective tool for informing this type of change.
References

Siegfried, Robert. J. (1999) “10 Keys to Healthy Community Change: Margaret Wheatley”
Learning 2 Connect. Retrieved January 31, 2013 from http://learning2connect.com/content/10-keys-healthy-community-change-margaret-wheatley
Wheatley, M. (Nov. 1, 2007) Margaret Wheatley: Creating Healthy Community Change.
Changed Minds. Retrieved January 31, 2013 from http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL57D3F5FDE5856188